Wildcard Nfl Video

Mix - Panthers vs. Saints Best net points in conference games. Best net points in all games. Ocean resort casino won-lost-tied percentage in common games, minimum of four. The tie-breaking rules have changed over the years, with the most recent changes being made in to accommodate the league's realignment into eight four-team divisions; record vs. A wild card Beste Spielothek in Schirnsdorf finden spelled wildcard or wild-cardalso known as at-large berth is a tournament or playoff berth awarded to an individual or team that fails to qualify in the normal way, for example by having a high ranking or winning a paylevo casino stage. Inthe Chicago Bears 6—1—6 and the Portsmouth Spartans 6—1—4 were wildcard nfl at the end casino spiele kostenlos ohne download the season with the identical winning percentage of. No change to the tiebreakers was made. However, the old-line NFL owners, who still expected their teams to dominate the merged league for at least the first half of the 's, thought a repeat of the Colts-Rams fiasco would be very likely under the new alignment combined with a six team format. Won divisional playoffs vs. The loss gave the Spartans a final winning percentage of. There was a head-to-head tiebreaker, which also was weighted toward the end br 3 was lief wann the season: Critics of the wild card, such as broadcaster Bob Costas in his book Fair Ball: From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. In Motorcycle Speedwaywild cards compete in the Speedway Grand Prix events in which there is 1 wild card per competition until there were 2 per Grand Prix. NCAA tournaments in all of its sports have included wild card berths, typically known as at-large berths at that level. They finished second in the Western Division of the American Football Leagueand in that season, the last before the merger, the AFL went from having its two division winners meeting for the league title to adding a second round in which the second place team in each division qualified for the post-season. When one club wins the tie breaker, all other clubs revert to step 1 of the applicable two-club or three-club format. A Fan's Case Beste Spielothek in Gailingen finden Baseballhave argued that, of the four major North American sports, baseball, having the most regular-season games nowplaces the largest importance on the regular season, and the wild cards diminish the importance of the regular season by permitting a "second banana" team to make the playoffs, and that while leverkusen madrid creates a league-wide race, it is for leverkusen fußball heute place and maybe third place in a division, and takes away what would otherwise be a pennant race between first- and second-place teams, and can lead to teams playing for the wild card storniert than to win the division. The two wild card teams in each league face each other in a one-game playoffwith the winner facing the number 1 seed in the Division Series. Inboth games were played in eishockeylive Pacific Time Zoneso they had slots heaven casino no deposit bonus codes be played on Casino 1453.net and Sunday to accommodate for time differences. Retrieved February 20, Like wild card teams before, the wild card game winner played the 1 seed, or the 2 casino mayen if they and the 1 seed were divisional rivals. If, at the end of the regular season, two or more clubs in the same division finish with simpsons app casino best won-lost-tied percentage, the following steps will be taken until a champion is determined. Cleveland's roster hasn't been very good, but it was certainly capable of winning four to five games each season. The NFL does not use a fixed bracket playoff system. Retrieved 22 September Leverkusen madrid multiple playoff spots are at stake, the rules are applied in order until the first team qualifies, then the process is started again hockey spielregeln the remaining teams. Both the 1 seed and 2 seed have home-field advantage in the divisional round. Also, the edarling bewertung on intra-divisional games during the divisional playoffs were removed.

Tampa Bay and Dallas are ahead of Detroit based on conference record Buccaneers' and Cowboys' to the Lions' Tampa Bay is ahead of Dallas based on strength of victory.

Dallas is ahead of Detroit based on head to head Tiebreaker Rules The six postseason participants from each conference will be seeded as follows: The division champion with the best record.

The division champion with the second-best record. The division champion with the third-best record.

The division champion with the fourth-best record. The Wild Card club with the best record. The Wild Card club with the second-best record. Head-to-head best won-lost-tied percentage in games between the clubs.

Best won-lost-tied percentage in games played within the division. Best won-lost-tied percentage in common games.

Best won-lost-tied percentage in games played within the conference. Best combined ranking among conference teams in points scored and points allowed.

Best combined ranking among all teams in points scored and points allowed. Best net points in common games. Best net points in all games.

Best net touchdowns in all games. Head-to-head best won-lost-tied percentage in games among the clubs. If the tied clubs are from the same division, apply division tie breaker.

A major reason for this was an opponent average starting field position of Cleveland otherwise allowed an average drive distance of That's a good start, and some offseason improvements suggest this unit will be even better in Those improvements start in the secondary.

The Browns struggled against the pass last year, allowing 7. They raised eyebrows when they traded top corner Jason McCourty to New England, but more than compensated for his departure by signing E.

Gaines and Carrie enjoyed breakout campaigns with Buffalo and Oakland, respectively, in And Ward has elite upside as a shutdown perimeter corner. Briean Boddy-Calhoun was a gem undrafted free-agent find in and was one of the league's best slot corners last year.

Safety is a big question mark but there's a ton of upside with first-rounder Jabrill Peppers and first-rounder and converted corner Damarious Randall.

They're the projected starters, and starting strong safety Derrick Kindred is also in the fold. The Browns' best defensive player is defensive end Myles Garrett.

Injuries limited the first overall pick to 11 games as a rookie, but he was busy and prolific when active, playing 77 percent of the snaps during his final nine games.

He finished with 7. Garrett has "breakout" written all over him, and recent early-round picks Emmanuel Ogbah , Chad Thomas , Carl Nassib and Nate Orchard add solid, young depth with upside.

There's a lot to like at linebacker, too. That wasn't often the case for Collins, who was limited to snaps. Collins has struggled with health and ineffectiveness since joining the team during the season, but the year-old is one of the NFL's highest-paid players for a reason: He was one of the league's best at the position in recent years.

Schobert and Kirksey have settled in as solid players, leaving Cleveland with quality talent and depth at the position. Defensive tackle could be a weak spot, especially after trading Danny Shelton to New England.

However, the Browns felt they had a logjam after spending a pair of draft picks on Larry Ogunjobi and Caleb Brantley.

Both were key to the team's success against the run last season. There are a few question marks, but most of the unknowns are young, early-round players with significant upside.

There's breakout potential from an improved unit that already showed some signs of life in Add in the consistent wild-card contenders, then the improved, emerging teams and suddenly the NFC looks intimidating.

The Chargers are pretty stacked and the AFC South is much improved, but scan through the wild-card favorites and you'll notice that Cleveland's primary competition will be Kansas City, Baltimore and whoever comes up short of the divisional title in the South.

A much-improved Cleveland roster should be able to hang with these teams. To the Browns' detriment, their schedule isn't as light as you'd hope for a team that just went The Falcons, Saints and Panthers made the playoffs last year and all three figure to be in the mix in Tampa Bay is also much improved following a good offseason.

In other words, Cleveland might need to win the division in order to make the playoffs, which will be a tall task with Ben Roethlisberger still around.

Cleveland does, however, have the ammunition to overtake Baltimore and Cincinnati -- two solid defensive teams that continue to struggle with either poor or mediocre offensive play.

It's easy to make a case that Cleveland is currently better than both on paper. Though recent history has shown roster talent will often win out, there's a potential obstacle standing between the Browns and success in Is it possible was a fluke and Hue Jackson is a good or even great head coach?

Remember, he was a highly-coveted candidate for years leading up to his hiring in Cleveland. Since then, however, he has managed to win only one game in 32 tries.

Cleveland's roster hasn't been very good, but it was certainly capable of winning four to five games each season. Can he stick to a plan at quarterback?

Will he stop flip-flopping , redirecting blame on missed draft picks and end up on the same page as management? Will he continue to allow his defensive coordinator Gregg Williams to play his first-round box safety Peppers so far off the line of scrimmage that it has become a running joke among fans, analysts and even the players?

Can new offensive coordinator Todd Haley find the same success he had in Pittsburgh? The answers to these questions are sure to impact Cleveland's win total in Whereas teams in the Tournament of Hearts and Brier are traditionally referred to by their respective province or territory other than Northern Ontario and Team Canada , the team that wins the Wild Card game is referred to as the "Wild Card" for the duration of the tournament.

As is the case with Team Canada, the Wild Card retains that designation even if the team that is representing the same province or territory as the Wild Card team is eliminated prior to the Wild Card team.

With the introduction of pools, the round robin portion of the Tournament of Hearts and Brier now consists of two stages. The top four teams in each pool qualify for the second stage, formally known as the "Championship Pool.

This ensures that each Championship Pool team still plays eleven games that count for the purposes of determining playoff qualification.

The format is designed to ensure that a competitive team fills the Wild Card slot - due to the significant disparity in playing caliber between the top teams of Canada's fourteen member associations, it is widely expected that the Wild Card will consistently come from one of the provinces with the toughest fields in the playdowns, and that it will consistently be a championship contending team.

While the Canadian Football League does not officially use the term "wild card" to denote any playoff qualifier, its crossover rule acts similar to a wild card in many respects.

Although the CFL was officially founded in , its constituent sections did not fully merge until At the time, it was agreed that three teams from each division would qualify, regardless of overall league standings.

This quickly proved controversial, as a wide disparity in playing caliber had emerged between the East and West divisions. Since the league had also implemented a fully balanced schedule each of the nine teams played each opponent once at home and once on the road , this disparity made even worse by the fact the West had one more team than the East was fully exposed in the standings - in each of the first three seasons of the new format, the fourth place team missed the playoffs with records as good as in the West, while in the East records as bad as were good enough for third place and a playoff berth.

In , even the fifth place Western team's record of was good enough for outright possession of sixth place overall.

In , the playoff format was changed. The new format the fourth place team in one division to qualify if it finished with an outright better record than the third place team in the other division.

The Eastern owners agreed in exchange for expanding the schedule to 18 games, and also with a stipulation that the qualifying fourth-place team would stay in its own division for the playoffs.

As a result, the change introduced the possibility of a four team bracket in one division and a two game total point series in the other the two game total point format was nothing new in Canadian football - it was commonly used until the early 's.

It also introduced the possibility of the first place teams losing their traditional byes based on results elsewhere in the league. This occurred in , when the Calgary Stampeders qualified in place of the Montreal Alouettes.

The Alouettes folded before the start of the following season. Although it is highly questionable whether a playoff appearance would have saved the floundering Montreal franchise, the CFL quickly re-instated the traditional playoff format for the season.

This balanced the divisions both in numbers as well as, to a considerable extent, in playing caliber, and the reduction in teams also caused the schedule to be changed to emphasize more divisional games.

As a result, the three top finishers of the two divisions finishers always had the six best league records from up until the start of the league's U.

The current rule was adopted after the league re-activated the Alouettes and reverted to an all-Canadian alignment in It allows the fourth place team of one division to "cross over" and take the place of the third place team in the other divisional bracket, provided the fourth place team has more points i.

Since the cross over team enters as the third place team, it never receives home field advantage in the playoffs, even if its record is better than that of one or both of the qualifying teams in the other division.

As of , all teams to qualify under this rule have crossed over from the Western Division to the Eastern bracket, although there have been a handful of occasions where a fourth placed Eastern team was in mathematical contention for a Western cross-over berth late in the season.

Cross-over teams have advanced as far as the Eastern Final, but as of have never advanced to the Grey Cup game.

There is no provision for a fifth placed team in one division to cross over in place of the other division's runner-up, even if it has a better record - a somewhat academic point until , as since this scenario has yet to recur although on occasion it has been a possibility up to the final week of the regular season.

In the Edmonton Eskimos finished fifth in the West with a record and missed the playoffs while the Hamilton Tiger-Cats finished and qualified as Eastern runners-up.

In professional tennis tournaments, a wild card refers to a tournament entry awarded to a player at the discretion of the organizers.

All ATP and WTA tournaments have a few spots set aside for wild cards in both the main draw, and the qualifying draw, for players who otherwise would not have made either of these draws with their professional ranking.

High ranked players can also ask for a wild card if they want to enter a non-mandatory tournament after the normal entry deadline, for example because they lost early in another tournament.

This means a wild card player sometimes becomes the top seed. Three of the Grand Slam tournaments swap some wild cards: In motorcycle racing the term 'wild card' is used for competitors only involved in individual rounds of a championship, usually their local round.

Local riders taking advantage of their local knowledge often having raced that circuit on that bike before and affording to take risks without planning for a championship, often upset established runners.

Makoto Tamada and Shaky Byrne have both taken double victories in Superbike World Championship rounds in their home countries. The most famous wild card entry perhaps was the late Daijiro Kato with finishing 3rd at his first appearance in and then winning the Japanese cc Grand Prix back to back in and on his way to become the most successful cc World Champion of all time in Each Event host Federation FMNR may nominate 4 wild card entries for the Superbike class and 2 wild card entries for the Supersport and Superstock classes, in their own event only.

The FIM may nominate 2 wild card entries for the Superbike class. In Motorcycle Speedway , wild cards compete in the Speedway Grand Prix events in which there is 1 wild card per competition until there were 2 per Grand Prix.

As of [update] six wild cards have won a Grand Prix: Wild Card entries are not unknown in auto racing either, although the Concorde Agreement in modern-day Formula One requires all teams to participate in every event.

John Love came close to winning the South African Grand Prix in a wild card type situation, long before the term had been coined.

This allowed track owners to advertise and guarantee to fans that the most popular drivers would participate in the race pleasing fans in attendance, and preventing no-shows even if the driver had an unfortunate mishap e.

Starting in , only the Former Champion's Provisional remains. In , Kasey Kahne , was selected as a wild card via fan vote, and went on to win the race.

In previous seasons, the top 12 drivers in championship points after the first 26 races of the season automatically qualified for the Chase, with their points reset to a point unreachable by any other driver.

Under the — system, only the top 10 drivers automatically qualified. The other two Chase qualifiers were the two drivers ranked from 11th through 20th after 26 races with the most race wins, with tiebreakers used as necessary to restrict the number of "wild cards" to two.

Major changes to the Chase format that took effect in , most notably determining the newly expanded Chase field of 16 mainly by race wins, eliminated this type of "wild card".

NCAA tournaments in all of its sports have included wild card berths, typically known as at-large berths at that level. Winners of each athletic conference 's tournament or, in the case of basketball's National Invitation Tournament , the team with the best regular season record in that conference are granted automatic bids into the tournament, and a selection committee fills the remaining slots in the tournament bracket with who it determines to be the best teams who did not win their tournament in practice, major conferences with stronger reputations and more revenue are invariably favored over mid-majors with similar records.

Although the term "wild card" is not generally used in this context outside North America, a few competitions effectively employ such a system to determine one or more places in a future phase of a competition.

In the Olympics, several sport governing bodies award wild cards to nations in order to further promote their sport. Sports governing bodies will either make selections or hold a tournament to determine the wild cards.

One such notable wild card selection was Equatorial Guinea swimmer Eric Moussambani , who finished last in the m meter event in the Summer Olympics.

The Euroleague , a Europe-wide competition for elite basketball clubs, once had one "wild card" advancing from its first phase, officially the Regular Season, to its second, called the Top The rule was in place through the —08 season.

At that time, the competition began each year with 24 clubs, divided into three groups. Today, the competition starts with a preliminary stage of 16 teams playing down to two survivors, who join 22 other teams in the Regular Season.

Then as now, the groups played a double round-robin for the Regular Season, with eight clubs eliminated and the remaining clubs advancing to the Top Under the rules in place through —08, the top five clubs in each group automatically advanced.

The final "wild card" spot in the Top 16 went to the sixth-place club with the best overall record, with three potential tiebreaking steps.

A coin toss is not indicated as a possible step. Starting in —09, the "wild card" was abolished when the Regular Season was reorganized into four groups with 6 teams apiece.

Now, the top four teams in each group advance to the Top No change to the tiebreakers was made. Teams have to participate in qualifying for the World Cup, have to apply to be one, and FIBA is not allowed more than three teams from the same continent in order to be selected.

Rugby union 's analogue to the Euroleague is the European Rugby Champions Cup , which replaced the previous top-level club competition, the Heineken Cup , starting with the —15 season.

The Champions Cup maintains a system originally created for the Heineken Cup in which some "wild card" teams advance to the competition's knockout stages.

During the last five seasons of the Heineken Cup —10 to —14 , another "wild card" system allowed teams to parachute into the original European Challenge Cup , which has now been replaced by the current Challenge Cup.

This was scrapped with the creation of the current Challenge Cup. Both the Champions Cup and current Challenge Cup involve 20 clubs compared to 24 in the Heineken Cup and 20 in the original Challenge Cup , divided into pools of four clubs with each club playing a double round-robin within its pool.

In both competitions, eight clubs advance to the knockout stages. The top club in each pool advances; the three "wild card" places are filled by the second-place clubs with the best overall records.

For the Champions Cup, the number of wild cards increased by one from the Heineken Cup era; both versions of the Challenge Cup had three wild cards, but the original version filled them in an entirely different manner.

In the final years of the Heineken Cup, starting in —10 and ending with the reorganisation of European club rugby, the three second-place teams with the next-best records after those that advanced to the Heineken Cup knockout stage parachuted into the Challenge Cup.

The tiebreaking procedure used to determine overall seeding, which was devised in the Heineken Cup era and carried over intact into the current era, is almost as elaborate as that of the NFL, with a total of seven steps a coin flip is the last.

Prior to —10, the original Challenge Cup also had "wild card" teams entering its knockout stages. The top club in each pool advanced to the knockout stage, along with the three second-place teams with the best records, using the same tiebreaking procedure as the Heineken Cup.

Starting in —10, only the winner of each pool entered the knockout stage, to be joined by the teams parachuting in from the Heineken Cup.

As noted above, with the creation of the new Challenge Cup, that competition abandoned this system in favour of the system used in the Champions Cup.

The Super Rugby competition, involving regional franchises from Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa, adopted a new playoff system with "wild cards" when it expanded to 15 teams in In its previous incarnations as Super 12 and Super 14 each number reflecting the number of teams in the competition , it used a Shaughnessy playoff system in which the top four teams advanced to a knockout stage.

The expansion to 15 teams led to major changes in the competition format.

The first round of the playoffs is called the "Wild Card Round". In this round, each conference's two best by regular-season record division champions are exempted from play and granted automatic berths in the "Divisional Round".

The four division champions are seeded from 1 through 4, while the two wild card teams are seeded 5 and 6; within these separations, seeding is by regular-season record.

In the "Wild Card Round", the 6 team a wild card team plays against the 3 team a division champion , and the 5 team a wild card team plays against the 4 team a division champion.

The division champions have automatic home-field advantage in these games. In the "Divisional Round", the worst seeded remaining team plays the 1 seeded team, while the best seeded remaining team that played in the wildcard round plays the 2 seed.

Both the 1 seed and 2 seed have home-field advantage in the divisional round. The NFL was the first league ever to use the wild-card format.

Until , a tiebreaker game was played to resolve a deadlock for first place in either of the two conferences. When the league expanded to 16 teams, it realigned into four divisions and expanded the playoffs to two rounds.

Tiebreaker games were eliminated in favor of the use of performance-based criteria to determine division champions. The rival American Football League , which reached a final size of ten teams in two divisions, also restricted its postseason to division winners until the season the AFL's last as a separate league when it expanded the playoffs to include division runners-up.

The runners-up played the winners of the opposite divisions for the right to contest the AFL Championship Game.

The decision to make the conferences equal in size meant they could not feasibly align into anything except three divisions of four and five teams each.

This led to a debate as to how the postseason of the merged league should be structured. The NFL format was criticized for its ability to cause a team tied for first overall in the league to miss the playoffs this happened once, in , when the Baltimore Colts missed the postseason despite a.

The AFL's playoffs were criticized by NFL purists for breaking with longstanding tradition, also, due to the fact that they allowed runners-up to qualify no matter how much disparity existed between the divisions, the AFL playoff structure could allow a mediocre team to qualify - this did occur when the Houston Oilers , a.

Despite Kansas City's win, some purists argued for the tradition of having only division champions contest the playoffs to continue.

Had they prevailed, the post-merger NFL playoffs would have consisted of six teams and might have closely resembled the playoffs of the modern Canadian Football League , with the regular season champion of each conference earning the right to host the championship game against the winner of a game between the champions of the other two divisions.

However, the old-line NFL owners, who still expected their teams to dominate the merged league for at least the first half of the 's, thought a repeat of the Colts-Rams fiasco would be very likely under the new alignment combined with a six team format.

In any event, most owners in both conferences wanted to keep the even four-team playoff field in each conference.

This was established by having the three division champions in each conference joined by the best second-place finisher in the conference.

As with much of the NFL's nomenclature, the "wild card" was not initially referred to as such and was instead referred as the "Best Second-Place Team" or sometimes simply as the "Fourth Qualifier".

The media, however, began referring to the qualifying teams as "wild cards". Eventually, the NFL officially adopted the term. During the , , and seasons, the divisional playoffs featured the 1 seed hosting the wild card team and the 2 seed hosting the 3 seed unless the 1 seed and wild card team were divisional rivals.

In that case, the 1 seed hosted the 3 seed and the 2 seed hosted the wild card team. This was also the format used in Major League Baseball from through In , the playoffs were expanded to 10 teams; however, the restriction against teams in the same division playing each other in the divisional round continued until the playoffs expanded to 12 teams in During this time, the 1 seed hosted the winner of the 4 vs 5 wild card game, while the 2 seed played the 3 seed.

If the 1 seed and the winner of the 4 vs 5 wild card game were in the same division, then the 1 seed played the 3 seed, while the 2 seed played the 4 vs 5 winner.

When Major League Baseball expanded its playoffs to 10 teams in , it also used this format, although teams in the same division could play each other in the Division Series.

From through , the NFL used a rotation to determine which teams would host conference semifinal and final games, and which teams would play which other teams coincidentally, baseball also used a rotation when it began to have this number of teams, for both of the aforementioned purposes, from — before switching to the seeding method.

The number of wild-card qualifiers was expanded to two per conference in — the divisional winners were granted a bye week while the wild card teams played hence the origin of the phrase "Wild Card Round".

Like wild card teams before, the wild card game winner played the 1 seed, or the 2 seed if they and the 1 seed were divisional rivals. The playoffs were expanded again to three wild cards per conference in or 12 teams total, which remains now with the lowest ranked divisional winner losing its bye.

Following the addition of the Houston Texans in , the league added a fourth division to each conference. The league decided not to change the number of playoff teams, and thus the number of wild card qualifiers was reduced to two per conference, with the two lowest ranked divisional winners not receiving byes.

The term "Wild Card Round" continues to be used for the opening weekend of NFL playoffs, even though that weekend has involved both wild card and non-wild card teams since As of the start of the season , there has never been a meeting of two wild card teams in either conference's championship game or in the Super Bowl.

By extension, this means that two wild card teams have not met in the playoffs and, by further extension, that a wild card team has not hosted a playoff game since the league expanded to 32 teams in The Raiders, Steelers, and Bills tied for first in their division but lost a tiebreaker.

While not a wild card team, the Kansas City Chiefs were the first non-division winner to win the Super Bowl. They finished second in the Western Division of the American Football League , and in that season, the last before the merger, the AFL went from having its two division winners meeting for the league title to adding a second round in which the second place team in each division qualified for the post-season.

These teams played cross-division in the semifinal round. Because the term "wild card" was not instituted until the following year, the Chiefs are not included in the above list, but are recognized as the first team to win the Super Bowl without winning a division title.

Although the National Basketball Association NBA include wild-card teams in their playoff structures, the term "wild card" is seldom used; instead, each playoff team is most commonly denoted by its seeding position within the conference.

In the NBA, division champions within each conference were given the seeds based on their regular-season records.

The two fourth-placed wild-card teams are awarded the 7 and 8 seeds, respectively, also based on their regular-season records. In the NBA playoffs, home court advantage is determined strictly by regular-season record, without regard to seeding.

Until , the NBA seeds the three division winners and the wild-card team with the best record by regular-season record. This means that the wild-card with the best record got a seed as high as 2 if that team is in the same division as the team with the best record in the conference ; however, the next four wild-card teams will still be limited to the 5 through 8 seeds.

This change was made to ensure that the two best teams in each conference could not meet until the conference final, and also allegedly to try and eliminate incentives for a playoff-bound team to deliberately lose games at the end of the regular season in order to "choose" a higher-seeded team that has won fewer games and, due to the unique home-court rules of the NBA, possibly gain home-court advantage for that series.

The notion of "wild cards" was essentially abolished the —16 NBA season , as changes made prior to the season mean the top eight teams in each conference qualify regardless of divisional rank, with the seeded teams ranked by percentage.

The only particular advantage to winning a division now is that a divisional title serves as the first tiebreaker for qualification seeding purposes.

Unlike some other leagues, there is no tie-breaker advantage at all to finishing in any divisional rank lower than first - meaning for example that while a division winner will automatically win a tie-breaker over another division's runner-up, a division runner-up will not automatically win a tie-breaker over teams finishing third, fourth or fifth in other divisions.

The new format means it is possible for an especially weak division to send no teams not even its champion to the NBA playoffs, although as of the start of the —19 season this has not yet occurred.

In the NBA, the winner of the 1 vs. Notice that the winner of the 1 vs. In the National Hockey League NHL , the first, second, and third place teams in each division qualify for the playoffs automatically, and two additional teams, regardless of divisional alignment, also qualify by having the best records among the remaining teams in the conference.

These teams are referred to as the Wild Cards. The division champions play the Wild Cards, while the second and third placed teams in each division play each other; therefore the bracket is fixed, like the NBA.

Home ice advantage is given to the higher seed in the divisional rounds, with the better record being used in the Conference Finals and Stanley Cup Finals.

The NHL's current format is similar in some respects to the "cross-over rule" used by the Canadian Football League since in that it the format emphasizes intra-divisional ranking and brackets in the playoff structure and yet allows two teams from one division to qualify for the playoffs at the expense of the two teams finishing with worse records and in the same divisional ranks in another division.

The main difference is that the CFL only allows the lowest ranked playoff qualifying team from a division to cross over into the other division's playoffs, whereas in the NHL it is possible for either Wild Card team to "cross over" to the other division, or even in cases where four teams qualify from each division for the Wild Card teams to swap divisional playoff brackets.

Also, unlike the CFL the NHL does not require the second Wild Card qualifier to have an outright better record than a superior-ranked team in the other division - in the event of such a tie at the end of the NHL season standard tie-breaking procedures are used to determine playoff qualification.

From until , division champions within each conference were given the seeds based on their regular-season records. Among the remaining teams within each conference, five additional teams with the best records are awarded seeds 4 through 8.

The division champions first-third seeds and the team with the best record that isn't a division champion fourth seed were given home ice advantage in the opening playoff series, in which they face the eighth-seeded through fifth-seeded teams, respectively.

However, the playoff format differed slightly from that of the NBA. In the NHL, the highest winning seed of the first round played the lowest winning seed of the first round in the next round of the playoffs.

For example, if the 1, 4, 6, and 7 seeds win their respective first round series then the second round of the playoffs matched the 1 seed highest versus the 7 seed lowest and the 4 seed 2nd highest versus the 6 seed second lowest.

Home ice advantage in each NHL playoff series prior to the Stanley Cup Finals was granted by superior seed, even if the "wild card" team had a better regular season record.

For the Finals, the team with the better record will receive home ice advantage. Major League Soccer MLS , the top level of soccer football in both countries, used a wild card format starting in its playoffs.

The top three teams from each of its two conferences automatically qualified for the conference semifinals, while the four remaining teams with the highest point totals in league play, without regard to conference, earned "wild cards" into the playoffs.

The wild card matches were single games, with the 7 seed hosting the 10 seed and the 8 seed hosting the 9 seed. The lowest surviving seed then played the Supporters' Shield winner i.

The "wild card" format was revamped for the season. The change was made as part of a wider set of changes which expanded the tournaments to 17 teams and eliminated the unpopular Pre-Qualifying Tournaments.

From , the round robin stage of the Tournament of Hearts and Brier will consist of two seeded "pools" of eight teams as opposed to the old format consisting a single group of twelve teams.

This allows the main tournament to include "Team Canada" either the defending champions or, when the champions decline to or are unable to defend their title, the runners-up and teams representing all fourteen constituent associations representing the ten provinces and three territories plus Northern Ontario.

The remaining two participants in the tournament are the Wild Cards, which compete in an MLB-style play-in game prior to the main tournament to determine the sixteenth team in the main tournament.

Just as is the case with MLB division titles, the format is designed to give teams an incentive to win their provincial championships. The Wild Cards are the top two teams in the Canadian Team Ranking System CTRS standings that did not win either the previous year's tournament or their respective provincial or territorial championship.

The top ranked of these two teams receives the hammer last rock to start the game. In fact, they once were a powerhouse. Their dominance between their inaugural season in and makes Bill Belichick's New England Patriots look less like a dynasty and more like a -- cue the air quotes -- "dynasty.

The Browns won seven championships and added one more in , trailing only the Green Bay Packers 13 and Chicago Bears 9 on the all-time list.

Needless to say, they haven't been quite as good since. Cleveland had its first-ever winless season last year, hasn't been to the playoffs since and has failed to eclipse five wins in 10 of the past 12 seasons.

Of course, all teams start the season at And it was quite the offseason for Cleveland. The Browns were busy making trades, signing impact players and, thanks to former general manager Sashi Brown, scooping up top-end prospects in the draft.

As the Oakland Raiders and Jacksonville Jaguars showed us in and , a franchise's fortunes can change in an instant.

The Browns won't remind you of Paul Brown's dominant squads of 70 years ago, but this is a team primed for a big step forward and, with a few breaks, very well could shock the world and snag eight or nine wins and a wild-card berth.

It all starts at quarterback. Tyrod Taylor is far from a superstar, but he's a solid presence, which is more than can be said about Cleveland's recent quarterback situation.

He has shortcomings as a passer, but does two things extremely well: The first is perhaps the most important and certainly the most-overlooked improvement for Cleveland in A look back at the past decade shows a strong correlation between turnover margin and wins.

The 46 teams that have won plus games in a single season during that span averaged a plus On the flip side, the average margin of the 26 teams that have won fewer than four games over the past decade is negative For my fellow stat nerds, the r-squared between turnover margin and wins is 0.

For non-stat nerds, that essentially means 43 percent of a team's win total can be determined by its turnover ratio. That's a huge number.

So why is this important? Cleveland fans know turnovers have been a problem for some time, but that was especially the case in The Browns' 41 turnovers were seven more than any other team.

They led the NFL with 28 interceptions, which translated to a negative turnover margin that was significantly worse than the next-closest team Denver minus The Browns have had one of the league's five worst turnover margins each of the past three seasons.

Comparatively, Taylor's Buffalo Bills ranked no worse than seventh in turnover ratio and were bottom six in interceptions each of his three seasons. And yes, that includes last year's infamous "Nate Peterman game" in Los Angeles.

DeShone Kizer handled a majority of Cleveland's quarterback snaps as a rookie last season, and to say he struggled would be a massive understatement.

He was picked off 22 times six more than any other quarterback and was off-target on 23 percent of his throws second worst. The year-old former Virginia Tech star racked up 65 touchdowns while throwing only 16 interceptions in his three-year stint in Buffalo.

There are reasons why teams short on roster talent can sneak into a playoff spot like the Taylor-led Bills and recently Alex Smith -led Chiefs.

And limiting turnovers is the primary one. Taylor also is exceptional at making plays with his legs. A terrific athlete, Taylor has racked up at least rushing yards and four scores in each of the past three seasons and is averaging a healthy 5.

He ranks second to only Cam Newton at the position in carries, rushing yardage and rushing touchdowns over the past three years. Taylor rarely lights up defenses through the air and occasionally struggles with accuracy, but trailing only Brady in interceptions and being second only to Newton in rushing prowess is pretty darn good.

Taylor is expected to be under center for most of , but if first overall pick Baker Mayfield proves to be so good that he snags the job, that's just more good news for Cleveland's chances.

If the offense is in solid shape with Taylor, that would launch the unit even further. Taylor spent the first five years of his career as Joe Flacco 's backup in Baltimore and the past three as the starter in Buffalo.

And yet, he'll easily enjoy the best supporting cast of his career in Cleveland. It starts with the offensive line. The elephant in the room is the retirement of superstar left tackle Joe Thomas , which leaves the team a bit shaky with third-round pick Shon Coleman in Thomas' place.

That's easily the weakest spot on the line. Right tackle Chris Hubbard was signed away from division rival Pittsburgh and is a solid presence opposite Coleman.

The NFL's Competition Committee withdrew the request later that offseason, [26] with Atlanta Falcons president Rich McKay mentioning that they wanted the idea to simply get a discussion going.

New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft was a strong opponent of the rule change, believing that "if you win a division, it's good for your fans to know you will have a home game.

Just before the —11 Seahawks-Saints playoff game, McKay wanted to revisit the previous proposal to reseed teams during wild-card weekend.

In October , NFL commissioner Roger Goodell announced plans to revisit the idea to expand the playoffs to 14 teams, with the increased revenue gained from the two additional postseason games being used to offset plans to shorten the preseason.

The team playoff proposal remained tabled until December , when no team in the NFC South could finish better than.

One proposed club system includes giving first-round byes for the teams with the best record in each conference, two division champions in each conference receiving home games, and the remaining eight teams would be seeded by win-loss record.

It is likely that movement won't be made on expanding either the playoffs or the regular season until at least , when the current collective bargaining agreement expires.

Correct as of —18 NFL playoffs. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Redirected from Wild card weekend.

NFL playoffs Most recent season or competition: National Football League championships. NFL playoff game, List of NFL champions.

American Football League playoffs. As such, the Ravens are considered to have begun play in while the current Cleveland Browns are considered to have been founded in , were inactive from —98, and resumed play as a new team in Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Retrieved January 30, Archived from the original on Archived from the original on July 19, Retrieved January 8, Retrieved January 11, League should revisit playoff seeding system".

Retrieved February 20, They were going to happen, and then … nothing". Retrieved 19 October Retrieved November 13, After the season finale, the league office arranged for an additional regular-season game to determine the league champion.

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Most recent season or competition: Philadelphia Eagles 1st title [A]. Green Bay Packers 13 titles [B]. Head-to-head best won-lost-tied percentage in games between the clubs.

Best won-lost-tied percentage in games played within the division. Best won-lost-tied percentage in common games games played against the same opponents.

Best won-lost-tied percentage in games played within the conference. Strength of victory the combined won-lost-tied percentage of all the teams that a club has defeated.

Strength of schedule the combined won-lost-tied percentage of all the teams that a club has played against. Best combined ranking among conference teams in points scored and points allowed.

Best combined ranking among all teams in points scored and points allowed. Best net points in common games. Best net points in all games.

Best net touchdowns in all games. Apply division tie breaker to eliminate all but the highest ranked club in each division prior to proceeding to step 2.

For ties among three or more teams, this step is only applied if there is a head-to-head sweep; i. Best won-lost-tied percentage in common games, minimum of four.

Strength of victory record of all the teams they defeated that season. Strength of schedule record of all the teams they played that season.